Posts Tagged ‘Neturei Karta’

Elementary and middle school students in a New York Haredi Orthodox school demonstrated against an Israeli bill aiming to draft Haredim into the Israel Defense Forces, JTA reported Thursday.

The children’s learned anti-Zionist rabbis lectured their prodigies as they held signs that compared the Zionist government with their historical equals – Hitler, Pharaoh and the Roman military commander Titus who led the invasion of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. How fitting for the current period in which Jews mourn the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples.

Nothing like spreading a little bit of hate to keep God further away.

Of course, these children are not taught to hate,. Their rabbis teach them that Israel’s draft of Haredi youth is against the Jewish religion.

JTA reported, “In Israel, they have a government that is against religious freedom, and because of that, we want to explain to the children that it is against our religion and we are not with” Israel, said ninth-grade teacher Rabbi Moshe Kaplan, according to Mid-Hudson News. “There is separate Zionism and Judaism. They are not the same thing. We are Jewish and they are not Jewish.”

Having wiped out 6,00,000 Jews in one sentence, these teachers really can say they are the only Jews left in the world. Obviously, Reform and Conservative Jews are not Jewish in their eyes, and it would take more than a few thumbs in the air to expound twisted Talmudic logic for them to convince themselves that modern Orthodox Jews, those terrible Zionists, also are not part of the fold.

A true Jew, especially those living in Israel, is one who beats a Haredi soldier. Just ask the reliable Neturei Karta leader Israel Meir Hirsch.

Obviously, a Haredi soldier is a robber. You didn’t know that?

Here is the reasoning:

“It is the same as if a robber came into your own house would you not protect it? If you see a robber in your house would you go ask a rabbi whether to attack or remove the thief? Of course not. These soldiers are thieves, as they are stealing the Orthodox-Jewish identity. There is no distinction between a religious and a secular soldier. Haredi soldiers are on the threshold of becoming totally secular, even if they pray and wear tefillin 10 times a day.

“There is a consensus in Meah Shearim to deny access to all those who try to harm us,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch is brave with his word, but he was not on hand to join the ambush of the Haredi soldiers who was pummeled with rocks on Wednesday until riot police rescued him.

Why should he do the dirty work? There are plenty of children out there who are taught to do that.

On a beautiful Sunday morning in May, I was driving south on the West Side Highway in New York City, heading towards the Israel Day Parade. As my car made it’s way along the mighty Hudson river, I marvelled on how awesome this city is. I saw myriads of buff joggers, happy barbecues taking place on well-tended Riverside park lawns, and of course, the imposing, surreal, gigantic skyscrapers that adorn this world-capital metropolis.

I travel often to New York to promote a stronger connection between North American Jews and Israel, and to encourage Aliyah, and every time I go I am struck by the thought: How is the Aliyah idea going to compete? This place just has too much of a magnetic pull and Jews have everything here – financial success, the best of world culture, freedom to worship, and all in relative safety, in the shadow of this great city.

While I was pondering this, I saw an airplane flying low over the Hudson River, at first thinking it was a WWII relic. But then I realized it was one of those propeller planes that tow a sign for people to read at the beach. I could make out the first letter was a “J” and so I guessed it was Christian advertising promoting you-know-who. “New York is still a non-Jewish town, and Jews will never feel fully comfortable here” I thought. But as the plane got closer, the sign said something else, something very Jewishy indeed.

It read: “Judaism rejects Zionism and the State of Israel -NK, USA.”

Yup, Neturei Karta rented a plane and flew an anti-Zionist sign from the Rockaways all the way up past Manhattan – all in an effort to push back against the Israel Day Parade. Now I felt totally dejected, because I realized how doubly hard it will be to detach Jews from New York. Not only is the city tantalizing, but there is a conscious effort being made to disconnect Jews from Israel.

You may argue that Neturei Karta is an extremist group and is unrepresentative of American Jewry, and that is true. But they are not the only ones mounting a distance-yourself-from-Israel campaign. On both ends of the Jewish political spectrum there are movements which seek to disengage Jews from Israel.

For some in the Progressive movement it has been in vogue to see Israel as immoral, repressive, racist, as an apartheid state, and even equivalent to the Nazi regime. In a recent article featured on Tikkun Magazine’s website, reprinted from Haaretz, the writer asserts:

“The practice of denying the Palestinians their basic civil rights in the occupied territories under the army’s colonial regime – exemplified by the scandalous policy of administrative detentions and the disappearing of people in Israeli prisons for years because of their opposition to repression and humiliation – is frighteningly similar to the persecution practiced by the dark regimes of the 20th century against their opponents.”

These Progressives may believe they are helping Israel through their criticism, but the real effect is that Jews who come in contact with them are distanced from Israel. Israel is decidedly not their country because it does not meet their progressive Jewish moral standards, or in other words: their Judaism rejects Zionism. “Forget it man, Israel is a mess,” says the liberal-minded Jewish student on campus.

The ultra-Orthodox Chariedim may come from the polar opposite world view, but they too have a Jewish moral reason to get some distance from Israel: Israel is not religious enough, not Torah enough. According to this doctrine Israel was built as a secular State by those antagonistic to Judaism and today is still run by those antagonistic to Judaism. The coercive secularism of Zionism is at the root of the real Israel, and the advent of Yair Lapid only prove that nothing has changed.

Hamodia, the self-described, “Daily Newspaper of Torah Jewry,” had this as the opening line of a recent article: “Secular politicians in Israel — not all of them, but those who are leading the campaign for an ‘equal sharing of the defense burden’ — want to deal the chareidim a crushing defeat.”

How ironic. Both of these Jewish groups could see Israel in a totally different light if they only chose to.

An anti-Zionist rabbi said he was attacked in Amsterdam because of Israel, but police maintain that the incident simply was an argument over an “almost” traffic accident.”

The facts of the story are clear, but it takes a very open mind, if not a deranged one, to understand the interpretation.

A car almost hit a pedestrian, who was so angry at the near mishap that he snapped a picture of the driver who had supposedly stopped his car in order to threaten to do to him what he didn’t do by hitting him with his car.

The motorist then supposedly ran after the man and attacked him, who apparently was not happy with the idea that he already had escaped injury by not being run over by the car. The victim was a rabbi and dressed in traditional Haredi gear. For that reason or for another, the driver, a Muslim, reportedly hurled hate insults at him and then attacked him after a chase..

The police said the whole affair was not an anti-Semitic attack, while the rabbi drew the obvious conclusion that Israel is to blame for the attack.

Israel?

Of course, but you have to understand Neturei Karta to follow the reasoning.

The rabbi is named Joseph Antebi, and just to make the story stranger than fiction, he is an Israel living in Holland, where he is not contaminated by a Zionist state. He prefers anti-Zionists like himself.

And perhaps like the Muslim who attacked him.

The driver-attacker “had relatively dark skin and didn’t look very Dutch, or at least didn’t look like his family has been living in Holland for centuries,” Antebi told the JTA.

He claimed that the driver, according to the rabbi, stopped the car and threatened to hit him. Antebi pulled out his cell phone to photograph the Muslim, perhaps for nostalgia to remember he is not the only one who hates others because of their race, religion or citizenship.

The good rabbi calls himself a “Palestinian Jew,” JTA reported.

But he really loves his brethren. He said that the attacker “shouted negative things about my religion and about my people.”

And that is why Israel is to blame.

You see, people hate Jews because Israel is such an awful country.

“People hear about the atrocities, the way the Zionist state is treating the nations around them, and they are angry about it,” Antebi told JTA. “I’m not surprised he did what he did, it’s human behavior. The one to blame is the Zionist state, which is doing a lot of bad things to people.”

Now we know that Antebi sympathizes with his attacker, apparently a fellow anti-Zionist.

His account of the incident is a bit much to believe. First of all, if the driver almost hit him, maybe, just maybe, Antebi was crossing the street without looking past his cell phone?

Not only did the driver supposedly stop his car, get out and shout at Antebi, the rabbi also claims the “dark-skinned” driver then ran after him when he asked a fishmonger to call the police. While the fishmonger refused, the driver attacked Antebi, who ended up in the hospital, where he was released after being treated for minor injuries.

Can you see this scene? A driver leaves his car in the street to run after an innocent Jew in order to attack him?

A spokesperson for the Amsterdam police told JTA police are investigating but are not certain the attack was anti-Semitic. “Currently, we are assuming it is an argument about traffic that got out of hand,” she said.

Neturei Karta blamed the attack on the “Zionist evil, which causes anti-Semitism all around the world, until even those who are truly observant and faithful Jews are liable to fall victim, and pay a high price for the Zionists’ sins.”

Antebi and his anti-Zionist cult know God’s system for reward and punishment.

But did it ever come to their minds, what is left of them, that maybe God is trying to tell something else to an anti-Zionist Israeli who is attacked by a Muslim who hates Jews?

Jewish Press blogger Paula Stern wrote, “The Muslim was being honest enough to know that there is no real difference between a Zionist and a Jew. The rabbi, however, remains stupidly blind to this simple fact.”

A rabbi was attacked on the streets of Amsterdam yesterday. The rabbi was beaten, kicked and spat upon. The man who attacked him was a Muslim. Realizing by the anger and hatred of the man who approached him, the rabbi asked a passersby for help – but was ignored.

The attacker was probably blinded by hatred because he missed one key factor. The Jew he was beating was a member of Neturei Karta, an organization that is as anti-Zionist and anti-Israel as the Muslim attacker. Interestingly enough, the Muslim was being honest enough to know that there is no real difference between a Zionist and a Jew. The rabbi, however, remains stupidly blind to this simple fact.

This rabbi, who holds Israeli citizenship, belongs to an organization that has stood with Iran in calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth. And in this incident, he proves the very reason why Israel must exist. For the Jews too stupid or too blind to realize it, Israel continues to provide a safe haven. Israel is a beacon of light, warning the world that there will never be another Holocaust.

At the President’s Conference, Bibi Netanyahu stood up and with the conviction we all feel, said, “I won’t allow it.” He was, of course, speaking for all Israel and for all Israelis.

Yes, a rabbi was beaten in Amsterdam because he wears the garb of the Jew and despite his blind stupidity in belonging to an organization that actually agrees with his attacker, he still became a victim of hatred.

In the logical world. the rabbi would realize his mistake; understand that to the man who attacked him, all Jews deserve to be beaten, and all of Israel is occupied and needs to be destroyed.

In the real world, the beaten rabbi would understand that ONLY through Israel, will the Jewish people avoid another Holocaust because when all is said and done, only Israel provides the protection, the haven, we need.

As the Syrian border heats up, nations pull their “peacekeeping” forces away. Yesterday – two things happened – a rabbi was beaten for being a Jew, even a blind and stupid one, and seven rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza.

The rabbi remains in the hospital; Israel’s air force flew into action this morning answering the attack by hitting multiple military targets.

I don’t expect the rabbi to become enlightened; I don’t expect Gaza to learn either.

May God bless the land and people of Israel, even the stupid ones, and may the Guardian of Israel protect our guardians, our sons and daughters who defend this land.

To the anti-Zionist faction Neturei Karta is attempting to exploit the difficult relationship between U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and to incite the former against the state of Israel. The Jerusalem Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim is awaiting Obama with American flags and a united call from the crowds to save hundreds of thousands of Jews from the “Zionists evil.”

Treating the president as if he was, at least, a Rosh Yeshiva, if not a Rebbe, the good people of Meah Shearim prepared special posters adorned with American flags on either side of a lovely shield that reads: The Agenda for the reception of his excellency Mr. Obama in the holy city of Jerusalem, 9 Nissan, 5773.

The poster itself reads, in text adorned by the five-pointed stars of the U.S. flag:

The Haredi Jews of Jerusalem Headed by the Rabbis, may they live long, Congregates On Wednesday, 9 Nissan, 5773 At 1:30 in the afternoon At the Meah Shearim Plaza And from there the congregation will proceed carrying U.S. flags To receive his excellency the President And ask of him To liberate the Haredi Jewish community And the entire Holy Land From the grip of the Zionist bandits!

Signed: The Haredi community in the Holy Land.

The separatist community of Neturei Karta views the entire Zionist experience as an unholy act of defiance against the gentile world, costing many Jewish lives. Their stated submission to the visiting president will be accompanied with a request, printed on another wall poster, that he use his influence “to save hundreds of thousands of Jews from the evil harassments of the Zionists, who wish to force them to abandon their faith and even, God forbid, force them to serve in the Army – an act which defies the religion and any sense of justice and human morality – and to liberate us from the repression of the Zionist infidels.”

The ads further implore Obama, the “Exalted President,” that “his heart be awake and attentive to the suffering of the Jews who hold on to the original Jewish faith of thousands of years.”

They pray for him and bless him that, should he help them, “The God of Israel will do right by the one who does good for His people, and bring him years of tranquility and success, and wherever he turns he shall act wisely, for the sake of the great kingdom of the United States and all of humanity, as the president and his government wish.”

Last Sunday, representatives of Neturei Karta participated in the annual memorial service in Ramallah marking the day of the passing of PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat. They stood out in the crowd in their black clothes, each wearing identification tags over a background of a Palestinian flag.

During his speech at the gathering, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas restated his intention of petitioning the United Nation’s general assembly this month to grant the Palestinian Authority the status of an observer state.

Abbas said he is determined to carry out his plan, in spite of pressure and threats from the United States and Israel.

“We will make our request as early as this month, and, within a day or two, the Arab League will let us know exactly on which date this month to do it,” Abbas declared, adding: “Even though they don’t want us to petition the UN. We will not deny the legitimacy of Israel and we do not wish to deny it, but we do want to undermine the legitimacy of the settlements.”

Abbas also referred to the circumstances surrounding Arafat’s death eight years ago and said that Russian experts requested the Palestinian Authority to join the French and Swiss team which will investigate the “strange” death, as he put it.

Members of Neturei Karta, a radical, fringe sect of Jews met with Ahmadinejad in New York to express their common hatred for Jews and their desire to see the “peaceful dismantling of the [Zionist] state”.

Ahmadinejad concluded the meeting with the hope that he will be successful, while the Neturei Karta members wished Ahmadinejad much success.